It was a little windy out there and I went to pick up a cast I knew I should not have and imbedded a 1/0 hook past the barb into my cheek. I usually do not fish barbed hooks but I was tired and did not bother crimping it this morning...

So it is 5am and no one around and I got a shrimp fly hanging out of my cheek. Now it was a lady caroline so it was quite the fashionable statement but I as thinking a trip to the ER was in order. However upon further tugging I realized it was just inside my cheek and had not gone through. So I pointed my face diurectly into the wind for 5 minutes for a little numbing effect and proceeded to push the hook through rather than coming back out where it came through. It was easier and surprisingly did not hurt at all. Lucky it was a sharp 811s tiemco. A mustad would have hurt!

After that I walked back to the car and pulled out the wire cutter and snipped the hook behind the barb. Then pulled the hook back through and I was free. Today you cannot even see where it happened and does not hurt at all. Not sure if there is a moral to the story other than think about fishing barbless and do not pick up those casts you know are going to blow right back into your face

I did the "push through and snip" once and it worked great, but with one terrible side effect. During the surgery I put my rod-n-reel on top of my car (which I never do otherwise) and completely forgot about it. Drove off - the outfit didn't skitter off the roof until I reached 50 mph. To my horror, I watched graphite splinters being made in the rear view mirror

I'm not so sure if the west coast leads the fashion world. Seems many years ago before the fly fishing fashion statement began there were a lot of one foot long Atom plugs stuck in eyebrows, ears and hands down on the big ditch. I bet that fashion statement still exists when stripas feed and the camo crowd move in.

Just make an appointment with Dr. Hook, aka Jim Simms and he will operate in no time. I have now witnessed Jimmy's hook removing expertise on 2 different south beach anglers. Both of these guys were "keeper size "also. Keith would not want to use either, Jim's son, Chris or my friend, Tom as the "average male" that he had to Float Test the latest RR in for the USCG!. I am curious to see if Jim's hook removal technique also works on most of us "baby striper" sized anglers!